Friday, November 02, 2018

Editor's Note: The long-awaited move of the Van Horn family is underway! Unfortunately, this means no new posts from now until possibly as late as November 18. I hope to be back before then, but unusual circumstances on top of the move require me to hedge my bets.

"Properly understood, individualism -- and its principle of individual rights -- is the foundation of America's unique politics." -- Jonathan Hoenig and Stuart Hayashi, "Introduction" in A New Textbook of Americanism: The Politics of Ayn Rand, Jonathan Hoenig, ed. (Elan Journo of the Ayn Rand Institute discusses this compilation, which includes previously unpublished material by Rand here.)

"The cause [of the increasing use of violence] is the growing acceptability of forming conclusions -- whether about the guilt of an accused or about the truth of an idea -- in disregard of evidence. " -- Peter Schwartz, in "The Assault on Objectivity" at RealClear Politics.

"Perverse incentives in the world of science can tempt researchers to promote fraudulent work that benefits the nudgers in the form of 'promotions, funding, and fame' -- but not necessarily benefitting those being nudged (i.e., ordinary Americans)." -- Paul Hsieh, in "When Government-Backed 'Nudgers' Go Bad" at Forbes.

"Defaults, a cascading series of failures to pay, where one party cannot pay and that stresses his creditor to the point of not paying, and so on, will destroy a currency eventually." -- Keith Weiner, in "What Can Kill a Useless Currency" at SNB & CHF.